William Mumler couldn’t explain it. He was having his first go at the photographic process, when a self-portrait he had taken developed to reveal a mysterious apparition of a girl by his side. Mumler ...

Early photography lacked the convenience of the stable roll film we all know, and instead relied on a set of processes which the photographer would have to master from film to final print.

Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879) was photography’s first widely recognized artist, making images in a signature soft focus style that remains captivating to this day. Before it was an art, ...